i dreamt i ran away from home |

i dreamt i ran away from home

title: i dreamt i ran away from home

year: 2008

location: streets of edmonton, alberta

duration: two weeks

supported by: visualeyez festival

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chalk dreams

dreams written on the sidewalks with chalk in english and cree: speaking with the voice of the colonizer to canada’s first nation people.

i dreamt i filled your mouth with stones

i dreamt i wrapped you in my skin

i dreamt you trusted me

nikî pawâten etâpwewakeyimiyin

nikî pawâten ekîwewekinitân pihcayihk nasakâhk

i dreamt i owned everything

nikî pawâten ekîtipêyihtamân kahkiyaw kîkway

i dreamt i locked you inside a shrinking house

i dreamt i cut your children’s hair

nîki pawâten nisâkaskinahtân kitpon asinkyak

i dreamt things fall apart

i dreamt i imposed my law and found you guilty

nikî pawâten kikwaya enanâniscipayihki

nikî pawâten ekîhitasiwâtakok niwiyasiwewina ekwa kîhatâneyimikawimâwâw

i dreamt i held your face away from the sun

i dreamt i awoke and heard your voice

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notes

i also wrote the “dream texts” on notepad paper, which i then attached anywhere that seemed to offer the possibility. i was interested in a kind of “all over” style, but one that felt both personal and intentional. i placed about 200 of these tiny texts on lampposts, billboards, construction site walls, inside newspaper dispensers, etc.

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oranges

oranges (tangerines from peru) placed where traces of homelessness remain.

blog post from day 4

because i get up so early to go to my cree lesson i have started to notice where people are sleeping. i have seen a man sleeping here, curled up on the rocks, his head resting on a folded up coat.

every day (except today) on my way back to the residency i have walked by a man sitting on the sidewalk, his back against the wall. he always asks me for spare change. when i tell him i have none, he says,” i’ll take an orange.” so today i bought twenty tangerines. tomorrow i will place them around edmonton in places where people sleep. of course i will place a couple by his spot.